In 1914, Marion [Reid Ferguson] was transplanted from her home in Scotland to the Eastern cities of Canada. Her longing for rocks, hills and lakes was not satisfied there, nor yet her desire to teach children what she had learned in her Scottish home. A vacancy on the staff of Norway House Mission, which she was asked to take, gave her the longed-for opportunity. Boys and girls were influenced for better things by her personality. You can just imagine seeing those same little boys sent back to wash their ears before breakfast or the girls having the dinner vegetables to re-do. After six busy and happy years with Indian Children, she left them to take up the Deaconess Course at Manitoba College. Miss Ferguson graduated this year and her greatest ambition is to be realized in her appointment as Missionary Deaconess to an Indian Reserve. Our best wishes go with her, along her road of service, which we know will lead to success.

The Reserve where Marion’s ambitions were met in 1929 was Moose Mountain in southeastern Saskatchewan. According to the Deaconess Appointment lists she served there until 1933, when she was left without an appointment. In 1934 the minutes of the Committee on the Deaconess Order and Women Workers record a decision not to seek employment for her and advise her “to stay at Cross Lake with Mrs. Gauden.” Cross Lake, a Cree community on the top of Lake Winnipeg, was the location of a United Church congregation. Perhaps Marion was working there. There was also a Roman Catholic Indian Residential School in Cross Lake. More research on the records of the schools could possibly provide more information on Marion.

In 1938, Marion’s status on the Deaconess Appointment list is changed from Leave of Absence to Retired. She may have reached the age of retirement for a Deaconess at the time, which was officially 55. It is unknown what happened to her in 1940, when she no longer appears on the Deaconess List.